Fight over 'open access' looming

The web has made it much easier to archive and access scientific research the minute it is published (Image: iStockphoto)

The scientific body that was a pioneer of peer-review journals says moves to provide immediate and free online access to research could have "disastrous" consequences for science.

The UK's Royal Society warns against "hasty" adoption of plans by public agencies to require scientists they fund to deposit research in large online "open access" databases.

The Society, which publishes seven peer-reviewed journals, says the proposed new models for open access publishing are "untried and untested" and there is no evidence they are economically viable.

It says the proposed move could stop researchers submitting papers or subscribing to existing peer-reviewed journals, which could cease to exist and leave researchers with lower-quality services.

The Society also says that a drop in journal subscriptions could also stop learned societies from running conferences from the profits raised by selling journal subscriptions.

A threat to journals?One example the Society opposes is a Research Councils UK (RCUK) proposal to make future grant recipients ensure their published peer-reviewed research papers are made publicly available at or around the time of publication.

Professor Stevan Harnad of the University of Southampton in the UK, who first recommended this particular model, argues it will supplement, not substitute, existing peer-reviewed journal publishing.

Are existing journals under threat from open access publishing? (Image: Anna Salleh)

He says there is a difference between open access journals (peer-reviewed journals that provide free and immediate access to their content) and open access archiving (where researchers put conventional journal articles into open access online archives).

He says the RCUK is not proposing to mandate that researchers publish in open access journals, merely that they provide open-access to their existing peer-reviewed articles.

"This is not about changing publishing models, it is about maximising research access," he says.

In cases where researchers choose to publish in an open access journal that requires the author to pay for peer-review, the RCUK would cover the costs.

He says he appreciates its concern with a loss of revenue, but also says some learned societies have found that making their journals open access has improved the circulation of their articles and impact.

He says the global movement towards open access was triggered by many public research funding agencies being frustrated that they could not easily access research results.

Open access in AustraliaSteele says while there has been vocal support for open access in Australia in general it has not taken off in a big way.

He says one problem is there is no incentive for academics actually to archive their journal articles because it takes time.

But a fight over archiving is looming, says Steele.

He says while 92% of the world's publishers currently allow copies of papers to be archived, this currently doesn't present them with any threat because few academics take advantage of the option.